SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- Request for Information
- Notice Date
- 12/3/2009
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- Contracting Office
- P.O. Box 5400 Albuquerque NM, 87185-5400
- ZIP Code
- 87185-5400
- Archive Date
- 1/30/2010
- E-Mail Address
-
James P Cochran, Contract Officer
(jcochran@doeal.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Request for Information DE-SS52-10NA00337Recycling Program to Harvest 3He from Retired Equipment THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP or Broad Area Announcement (BAA). Furthermore, those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regards to its submission; other than acknowledgment of receipt IF a request for an acknowledgement is requested by the submitter. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is not at this time seeking proposals. Responders are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding partys expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP or BAA. If a solicitation is released, it will be via the Government wide Port of Entry (GPE) at http://www.fedbizopps.gov. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor the website for any information that may pertain to this RFI. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned. 1.0 DESCRIPTION The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are seeking information from industries that have the capability to extract 3He from retired and excess equipment equipment no longer in-use or needed for programmatic purposes. The scope of the program will consist of receiving shipments of excess equipment from DOE/NNSA sites at a centralized recycling location; storing the equipment while awaiting the recycling process; dismantling the equipment, if necessary; disposing of metal parts and/or hazardous materials from the dismantlement; sampling to determine the amount of 3He as well as the presence of any buffer gases; recycling and purifying the 3He; and storing the recycled/purified gas for future use. An important element of the program will be accountability of the 3He. An inventory system will need to provide the initial amount of 3He in each piece of equipment, and the amount recovered and stored. The inventory system must also be able to track the amount of 3He received/recycled from each recycling originator. The United States Government will own the recycled and purified 3He and have control of the sale and distribution of the inventory. The pilot phase of this program will initially include all DOE and NNSA sites. Depending on success, the program may be extended to other government agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Institute of Standards. For planning purposes, an estimated 10,000 liters (STP) may be recoverable from DOE/NNSA sites over a two year period. The DOE/NNSA sites will be performing an inventory in the near future and more information will be known at that time, such as the type and quantity of equipment that is available for recycling of the 3He. The majority of the equipment is expected to consist of retired or excess neutron detectors/tubes. 2.0 PURPOSE OF THIS RFI DOE/NNSA is seeking technical responses to determine the commercial sectors capability and interest to extract, purify, inventory and store 3He from retired equipment. 3.0 Statement of Capabilities The Statement of Capability (Technical Response) shall include the following information: 3.1 Provide a description of your storage and sampling location/capabilities. The senders will be required to sample the equipment for any radioactive contamination prior to shipment. Additionally, every effort will be made to determine the type of gas in the equipment (ie, 3He or Boron Trifluoride) prior to shipment, as this program is for recycling of 3He only. (This will not include analyzing the gas for constituents.) Some equipment and/or gases may be misidentified. Your capability to mitigate incidents regarding these scenarios will be considered. Describe your capability to handle such circumstances. 3.2 Describe your capability to address received equipment of varying geometry and size. It is anticipated a majority of the equipment provided by the senders will be neutron detectors of various sizes (backpacks, handhelds, and portal monitors) and/or neutron detector tubes. Neutron detector tube sizes can range in diameter from inch to 3 inches, and from a few inches to 8 feet in length. Additionally, there are variations in pressure, carrier gasses and tube construction material. Tubes are not designed with a feature for accessing the fill gas. 3.3 Describe your capability to dismantle equipment to remove the 3He tubes (if necessary), and disposal capability for metal parts and/or hazardous materials. 3.4 Describe how you will determine the amount of 3He initially present in each item. Indicate precision of measurement for accountability verification. 3.5 Describe the method and device(s) used to remove gas from each item (tubes) and your capability to ensure maximum 3He recovery. 3.6 Describe how you will separate the 3He from other gases that may be present in the tubes (buffer gases). 3.7 Describe your recycling process including process efficiency. Include a description of how you will measure and track the amount of 3He extracted. Indicate precision of measurement for accountability verification. 3.8 Describe the purification process and explain how you will meet this purity standard. The chemical purity of 3He needed is 99.999%. 3.9 Describe how you will store the purified 3He, and your capability to track the amount of 3He by sender. 3.10 Describe the steps you will take to ensure the security of the recovered 3He. 3.11 Describe your capability to ship the recovered, purified 3He. 4.0 SUBMISSION DIRECTIONS Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with a white paper. Each respondent shall identify its business size. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 562112. All documentation shall be submitted in pdf format. All technical information is due no later than 4:30 PM (Eastern Time) on January 4, 2010. Those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regards to their submission other than acknowledgment of receipt if a request for an acknowledgement is requested by the submitter. DOE/NNSA reserves the right to review late submissions but makes no guarantee to the order of or possibility for review of late submissions. The white paper document, including any drawings, shall be limited to 20 pages. The complete package will be submitted via e-mail. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. To aid DOE/NNSA, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned. Responses to this RFI may be evaluated by Government technical experts drawn from staff within DOE/NNSA and other Federal agencies. The Government may use selected support contractor personnel to assist in the evaluation. These support contractors will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements to protect proprietary and source-selection information. Responders are encouraged to avoid use of excessive marketing lexicon, submission of brochures and other unnecessary sales literature. DOE/NNSA will review the provided information and may elect to explore some of the information with the technology submissions. All questions and responses should be sent to the DOE Contract Officer, James. P. Cochran via email at jcochran@doeal.gov.
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